


Tight Knit Family

by Dand3l1on



Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Genre: Crack, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 11:20:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14019153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dand3l1on/pseuds/Dand3l1on
Summary: The textile crack fic you didn't need.What if, instead of eternal winter, there were season? Every spring, the Beast sheds. What to do with all that fur and time?





	Tight Knit Family

**Author's Note:**

> @Greensearcher  
> Look what you made me do!

It was a warm summer evening at the castle. Belle was enjoying the evening light, and sat up in bed reading her latest pick from the library. 

With a bang of the door, Adam swept into the bedroom, his face beaming with delight. He sped over to the large wooden trunk at the foot of the bed and flung it open.

“Belle! Belle! You’re never going to believe it! Plumette is with child!” He dropped a small stack of heavy winter blankets on the floor beside the trunk. 

She set her book on the nightstand. “Wonderful! ...I’m afraid to ruin your fun, but I already knew.” 

He stuck his head up above the lid of the trunk and glared at her. “I had a feeling you would, you tricky little secret keeper.”

She sat forward. “I wanted to tell you! But she swore me to secrecy. I figured it out very early on when I found her returning her breakfast into a mop bucket.”

Adam stopped rummaging through the trunk and stood up. “Oh, I feel terrible. I thought she looked pekkid the other day. I thought it might be rude to comment.”

Belle waved a hand dismissively. “She would have lied to you anyway, so there’s probably no harm done.”

Adam went back to rummaging in the trunk. 

Belle tried to peek around the lid. “What exactly are you-”

“A-HA! Found them!” Adam pocketed something small, replaced the contents of the trunk, and closed the lid. He turned to leave and was halfway to the door before Belle stammered a protest.

“A-Adam!”

He spun on his heels. “Yes, darling?”

“Are you, in fact, going to explain what all of that rummaging was about?”

“Oh, yes! Of course! I’m sorry, I’m just so excited.” He came over to her and withdrew from his pocket two small wads of brown fuzz.

Belle looked at him with uncertainty as he handed them to her. It wasn’t until she stretched them out in her hands that she could tell what they were.

“Wha- where did you get those? No, I understand from the trunk, but before that.”

“I’ve had them for years now. I… I made them myself.”

“You did no such thing!” 

“I most certainly did! Ask around! Mrs. Potts taught me.”

—-  
Soft candle light illuminated the kitchens. Most of the dishes had put themselves away for the night, and Cuisiner was humming quietly to himself while he scraped the char from his grill. 

Mrs. Potts was on the table in front of two large paws.

“That’s right, dearie, knit, knit, purl. Wait, your throwing your yarn with you left, you want to catch it instead with the needle in your right.”

The Beast sat holding two knitting needles as tightly as his paws would allow. His tongue was pinched between his lips and his brow was deeply furrowed. 

“Mrs. Potts, um… is all knitting this small?”

“No, love, I just thought a small project would be good for a beginner.” 

He nodded. “What exactly am I making?”

“Baby booties, of course.”

—-

Belle was grinning. “They’re darling and so soft. I’m curious about the color though…”

“No, you’re not. You know exactly why they are that color.” 

“I do, I just want to hear you say it.”

Adam rolled his eyes and sat down on the edge of the bed.

—-

Chapeau ran a fine toothed comb through the Beast’s fur, collecting great clumps and pulling them free. After amassing a pile that was half the size of the Beast himself, Chapeau set the comb down.

“How is that feeling, master?”

“Much less itchy, but I still feel like I’m burning up.”

“Shall I keep combing?”

A tea cart sped into the room, Mrs. Potts perched atop it. “No! Enough is enough! I’ve had hair floating through the kitchens for weeks now.”

“But, Mrs. Potts?! I can’t help it!”

“Master, I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay outside for a while. Just until you’re done-”

“DO NOT say ‘shedding’!” The Beast grimaced, revealing his fangs.

“Try to think of it as camping!” She offered.

“You’re joking!” Adam gawked at her.

Mrs. Potts looked at him sternly.

Chapeau leaned over to the Beast. “She’s not joking.”

“Listen, dearie, I’m sorry. You can sleep in the stables. No buts about it! Adam, we can barely keep up with the castle as it is. I can’t have the maids spending all day chasing tumbleweeds of hair around!”

Adam growled in outrage and kicked the stool out from beneath himself. The movement scattered the pile beside him, and clumps of hair drifted throughout the room.

Mrs. Potts stared at him pointedly.

Adam threw up his arms. “Fine! Fine. I’m going.”  
—-

Belle giggled at him. “Oh no, you poor thing. How long did you stay outside?”

“About two weeks, every spring. It was humiliating.”

\----

Adam sat under a tree that was visible from the kitchens. Cogsworth and Mrs. Potts stood on the window ledge, looking out at him. The clouds were dark and threatening, adding to an air of desperation. 

“Beatrice… have you considered that he might be trying to make you feel sorry for him?”

“I have,” she said, unable to hide her irritation. “However, I’m a little teapot, short and stout. If he wants to compare the hands we’ve been dealt, he’ll have to do all the work because he’s the only one with any hands to speak of!” 

As though on cue, the Beast gave a particularly pitiful look towards them. As they continued to watch, Mrs. Potts began to steam from her spout and it drifted into Cogsworth’s face.

He tried to wipe away the fog from the glass cover in front of his eyes. “...I suppose we all have our burdens to bear.” 

A clap of thunder boomed, followed shortly by the patter of rain on the window. The Beast hunched over against the pelting rain.

“He looks a bit pathetic out there, doesn’t he?”

“Don’t be fooled, you old soft soap and don’t you dare let him in! He has a cot in the stables if he’d rather stay dry. He’s just trying to prove a point.”

“About what, precisely?”

“That he’s not an animal.”

“But...”

Having had enough of his antics, Mrs. Potts trotted away. “Those are his words, not mine.”

—-  
“Over the years, it got easier to do, easier to manage. I learned how to spin it into yarn. Eventually, I dyed the yarn different colors with varying results.”

“I suppose some of the lighter colors wouldn’t have shown up against the brown.”

“You’re absolutely right. The best color to show up was a deep purple we made by combining beetroot and cabbage. It would stain everything it touched. Including me. Unfortunately, one year I fell into the dye bath-”

Belle gasped, her eyebrows shooting upward.

\---

The Beast shuffled into the kitchen before dinner. Upon seeing him, the entire staff froze. 

His fur was now a vibrant shade of purple, but only on one half of his body. Knowing he was about to endure critique, the Beast huffed loudly as he sat down at the chef’s table. 

Lumiere burst in, shouting instructions to a fellow footman. When he looked up and saw the Beast, he stopped dead in his tracks.

“Mon ami! It is fabuleux!”

 

\---- 

Belle was on her side, unable to control her laughter. 

“I’m going to go and give these booties to Plumette. I’ll come back later.” 

Belle waved him away, still cackling. 

Adam rolled his eyes. “...Maybe…”


End file.
